US criticizes Kenya ahead of Clinton's visit

NAIROBI, Kenya 
The U.S. strongly criticized Kenya on Tuesday just hours before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton's arrived, saying the country should form an independent tribunal following last year's post-election violence.

The U.S. said Kenya's decision to instead use discredited local courts to try the suspects behind the violence that left more than 1,000 people dead will call into question whether there is any will to carry out reforms.

"The United States will stand firmly behind the Kenyan people as they insist on full implementation of the reform agenda," said the statement released through the U.S. Embassy here. "We will take the necessary steps to hold accountable those who do not support the reform agenda or who support violence."

Clinton is on an 11-day Africa tour and will meet with Kenya's President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga during her visit there.

Kenya, the homeland of U.S. President Barack Obama's late father, is struggling to overcome political and tribal divisions laid bare after disputed December 2007 presidential elections.

The Kenyan government last week decided to try the suspects in local courts who are accused of perpetrating the violence.

Its courts, though, have a backlog of hundreds of thousands of cases and have a reputation for corruption. The government said it will accelerate reforms in the judiciary to ensure credible trials.

The decision to use local courts already has drawn heavy criticism locally.

The government-appointed human rights body called the Cabinet's decision "preposterous." The National Council of Churches of Kenya, an influential umbrella body of Protestant churches, expressed shock at the decision and called on Kibaki and Odinga to resign.

The violence came after rival campaigns disputed the results of the December 2007 presidential election. Several human rights bodies blamed businessmen and politicians in the current administration for orchestrating the violence, which was the worst since Kenya gained independence from Britain in 1963.

An independent commission that investigated the violence recommended last year that the government form an independent tribunal with Kenyan and foreign judges to try the suspects, arguing that Kenyan courts are not credible.

The commission also drew up a secret list of the suspected key perpetrators, which has been given to the Hague-based International Criminal Court.